Description

1. What has been your favourite part of the job so far?

My favourite part of the job so far has been my trip down to Australia, I was able to go down for 16 days and learn how Australia was using Cedar and figure out how we could benefit them.  It was a business trip, but I took advantage of it and explored and did as much as I could as Australia was always a bucket list location for me.

2. Do you sell your goods/products to Government Organizations?
Bakerview does not sell directly to the government as a major distributor we sell primarily to smaller distributing companies and remanufacturers that take our raw material and process it further to a finished product.  However sometimes these remanufacturing companies sell their finished goods to the government such as treated timbers or fencing for landscaping in parks.

3.  What are the important types of issues for your business?
Quotas and Tariffs are a huge issue for us, when the NAFTA Agreement expired softwood lumber was hit with a 21% tax on shipments into the US which is our biggest export customer.  Prior to the duty US customers were more inclined to purchase extra material to fill out a truck and they would put this excess material into inventory.  Since the duty was introduced US customers are less inclined to take excess material for inventory and their inquiries have become much more job specific.   While the US market continues to be our main market we have worked on growing our business in other export markets such as Australia, New Zealand & Europe. 

4. Is your business using social media as a tool for marketing?
We do not use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, because we do not sell to the general public.  Our sales staff research markets and when we find a business, we think would be a good fit we make a cold call and market ourselves.

5. Which is the main social responsibility issue for your business?
Being a lumber company, our main social responsibility is to the environment which is why we participate and in programs such as the FSC Program (Forest Stewardship Council) which is a non-profit organization that promotes responsible forest management of the world’s forests.

6. Does your business involve recycling?

No, our business does not involve recycling, however there are some lumber companies that use reclaimed wood (woods that have been previously used for other purposes) and they repurpose it usually for usually used in furniture, building or art.

7. How did you start this business? (e.g. existing business, family business take over, franchise)
Glen Kump took over as owner of Bakerview in 2008 after buying out the original owner and founder Vern Friesen when he decided it was time to retire.  

23. How do you manage the risk of Intellectual Property?

We don’t have any Intellectual Property, we use a L.I.S.A. program that is used throughout the industry, and we don’t try to reinvent the wheel. We aren't builders so we don’t try to come up with new building materials, we leave that up to the architects.

24. Who is the target market for your products/services? 

As a wholesaler our target market is a customer that can take a significant volume, these customers are usually large distributors and value-added remanufacturers.  By selling in volume it helps us keep a handle on our volumes and our length spec as some lengths are more desirable than others (these lengths are called prime lengths).  If we sold all our prime lengths it would make it very difficult to sell the rest of the volume that is all less desirable lengths.

25. How do you manage promotions for your business?

Since we don’t sell to the general public we don’t have a lot of promotions, at the end of every quarter however we evaluate our inventory levels and send out a discounted offering list that includes any items that we may have excess volume or single units of material that may not have fit onto a truck or container and or little jags (less that full packages) that develop from the remanufacturing process.  

26. What type of pricing strategy is usually used in your business? (e.g. Price skimming, penetration etc)

We use quite a few different pricing strategies’ depending on the customer and market conditions at the time.  For example, we have a shingle company on the island that we have been supplying for over 20 years so Glen has an open book relationship with them, they get our cost plus an 8% profit margin, we have a few different customers like that.  However, most of our pricing is done competitively and it's up to us to know and understand our markets and where our competitors pricing is at.

27. What type of goods and services does your business provide?

Bakerview Forest Products offers a softwood lumber species called Western Red Cedar.  Western Red Cedar is known for its distinct appearance and strong aroma (trust me there is no better smell than freshly cut cedar, but we may be a bit biased.)  it’s used mainly for outdoor applications like decking, shingles, siding, fencing, posts and furniture.  It can even be used in framing for kayaks and small sailboats, I even have one customer that uses it for guitars.

28. Is your business financed? If yes, how? (e.g. by bank, other financial institution etc)

Yes, our business is financed by the bank.